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The National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimates that nearly 12 million Americans with a history of cancer were alive in January 2008, the latest data available. NCI also expects that 1.6 million new cancer cases will be diagnosed in 2012.
At the same time, the five-year relative survival rate for all cancers diagnosed between 2001 and 2007 has risen to 67 percent, up from 49 percent in 1975 and 1977, the Institute says. The improvement reflects progress in early stage diagnosis for some cancers and better analysis of tumor registry data, according to NCI.
The result is a growing number of people living with a history of cancer, a group which the National Cancer Survivors Day Foundation defines as cancer “survivors.” On June 3 the Foundation celebrated the 3rd global Cancer Survivors Day.
GE joined the celebration and created a new data visualization that follows Twitter posts on the topic of surviving cancer. It aggregates tweets from all over the world in a single interactive graphic and allows visitors to quickly understand the most current topics, trends, and stories.
Visitors can sort tweets and find the top five most popular topics appearing in the last 1,500 tweets. They can explore major discussion threads, as well as zoom in at each related tweet. New tweets are constantly being drawn into the visualization and give readers an up-to-the-minute look at the thoughts and responses of people talking about surviving cancer.
In addition to sorting tweets by topics, visitors can explore the most common news stories referenced in the tweets, follow the individuals who are tweeting the most, and even log into Twitter directly and add to the discussion. Take a look.
